Robert Yates Racing

NASCAR Winston Cup driver Ernie Irvan, released from the final year of his contract with Morgan-McClure Motorsports on Thursday, has signed a 4-year pact with Robert Yates Racing.Irvan, who succeeds Davey Allison in the No. 28 Ford, went to work for his new team Friday at Darlington International Raceway and qualified 10th for Sunday's Southern 500.''My move is all about this: I thought this is what I need to do to win a championship,'' Irvan said. '' . . . If you're going to win a championship, you need everything behind you. This team has that.

Matt Cullen scored for the first time since returning to the Hurricanes, and six others added goals in Carolina's 7-1 rout of the host Toronto Maple Leafs on Tuesday. Cullen, traded back to Carolina during the summer after one season with the New York Rangers, scored a power-play goal that gave the Hurricanes a 3-1 lead in the second period. Justin Williams, Cory Stillman, Ray Whitney, Scott Walker, Jeff Hamilton and Eric Staal also scored. Bryan McCabe scored the only Toronto goal. NASCAR Rudd to return Ricky Rudd will get back behind the wheel of the Robert Yates Racing No. 88 Ford this week at Lowe's Motor Speedway after missing five weeks with a separated shoulder.

Before joining the Robert Yates Racing team, Ernie Irvan had seven Winston Cup victories in 167 races. In his first 13 races with the Yates team, he has won four.''Very few times does a well-established team and an established driver get put together,'' Irvan said.Together, Yates and Irvan just might run away with the Winston Cup points championship.Irvan, who took over in the No. 28 car with nine races to go last season after Davey Allison was killed, has won two of the first four races this year.

Robert Yates Racing will let Elliott Sadler out of his contract at the end of the season, the team said Thursday. It's another blow for the Yates team, which also will lose Dale Jarrett and sponsor UPS to Michael Waltrip's team at the end of the season. The team said Sadler asked to be released. Sadler, 31, won twice with the Yates team in 2004. But he has just four top-10 finishes this season and enters Sunday's race 20th in the Nextel Cup standings. The team said it already has begun searching for a new driver for Sadler's car for 2007.

The NASCAR Winston Cup Ford cars, 15 teams strong, began a three-day practice session at Daytona International Speedway on Monday. For most of the teams, it was their first on-track testing of the season. "Today is the first day, so we're just getting in and running the car through a lot of little things. Basically, we're just shaking it down," Jimmy Spencer said. Mark Martin, Morgan Shepherd and Ernie Irvan also are testing at Daytona this week. Irvan, who practiced at Daytona on Nov. 9, is in his first full season with Robert Yates Racing.

Ernie Irvan leaned against the covered Robert Yates Racing Ford Thunderbird earlier this week, feeling ready to uncover his potential.''I'm definitely more fired up than I have been,'' Irvan said. ''You always get fired up when you have a better chance to run good.''The season is six weeks away, but if there is a preseason favorite for this year's NASCAR Winston Cup points championship, it is Irvan.''That goes up and down,'' Irvan said. ''You have a couple of bad races, and it's someone else.

FONTANA, Calif. -- Elliott Sadler came to California Speedway last Labor Day weekend and won the track's first "Finish Under the Lights" Nextel Cup race, assuring himself a spot in NASCAR's "Chase for the Championship." This week, Sadler is back, and the stakes will be high again when he takes his place in the field Sunday evening for the Sony HD 500. This time, victory -- or a top-five finish -- will be imperative if Sadler intends to put his No. 38 M&M Ford Taurus in this season's chase.

Sometime before Sunday's ARCA 200, Kenny Irwin Jr. hopes to get an intensive lesson on how to draft with other cars at the Daytona International Speedway. Since Irwin claims not to know the first thing about drafting, that might be a good idea.``Joe Ruttman told me he would sit down with me, get a couple of those Hot Wheels cars and show me exactly how to do it,'' said Irwin, a Winston Cup rookie this year who raced with Ruttman in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series last season. ``I really have no idea about drafting, so I'm hoping to get some tips before this weekend.

When the Robert Yates Racing team selected Ernie Irvan as the driver for the Texaco Havoline Ford Thunderbird, a lot of Davey Allison's fans weren't overjoyed. In fact, many were angry that Allison's rival was replacing their deceased hero, one of the most popular drivers in the NASCAR Winston Cup Series.But Irvan could go a long way in appeasing the masses by wheeling the No. 28 car into victory lane the way Allison did so often in six years.''The biggest thing you've got to remember is that this is not Davey Allison's car,'' Irvan said.

The Circle Track magazine Trade Show returns for its ninth year featuring the most comprehensive gathering of performance and racing products and services, hands-on and behind-the-scene looks at racing and seminars by top name companies and individuals.The Racing Products Showcase is the feature of this year's show at the Daytona Beach Ocean Center. It offers visitors a first glimpse at new products.The highlight of the showcase is the first ever public display of the new racing vehicle, the Fastruck USA.The Fastruck USA is a class based on full-sized truck bodies, similar in makeup to Winston Cup chassis, powered by high performance V-8's.

FONTANA, Calif. -- Elliott Sadler came to California Speedway last Labor Day weekend and won the track's first "Finish Under the Lights" Nextel Cup race, assuring himself a spot in NASCAR's "Chase for the Championship." This week, Sadler is back, and the stakes will be high again when he takes his place in the field Sunday evening for the Sony HD 500. This time, victory -- or a top-five finish -- will be imperative if Sadler intends to put his No. 38 M&M Ford Taurus in this season's chase.

DAYTONA BEACH -- There are two kinds of drivers starting the Daytona 500 today -- those who have won the race and those who haven't. This is not only NASCAR Nextel Cup's biggest race of the year, but it's the defining moment in a race-car driver's career, the moment that changes everything and that is so powerful it can't be explained to those who've never experienced it. "It's almost hard to put into words," said Dale Jarrett, who will be one of...

The NASCAR Winston Cup season is finally over, and drivers have parked their souped-up stock cars in the garage for the winter. After 10 months and 34 weekends of bumping, banging and zooming around tracks, drivers have several weeks to ruminate over 1999.Whether drivers had good years or bad ones, they don't have much time to celebrate or sob, though. The Daytona 500 - and the start of another grueling, long season - is 80 days away.Before 2000 rolls around, here is a rundown of the best and worst of 1999:THE CHAMPION: DALE JARRETTDale Jarrett is an everyday guy. He has a wife and four kids.

After struggling in the season's first three races, NASCAR Winston Cup rookie Kenny Irwin Jr. and his No. 28 Ford Taurus will have a new crew chief starting with this weekend's race in Atlanta.Crew chief Marc Reno was released by Robert Yates Racing on Wednesday and will be replaced by Richard Labbe until a permanent crew chief is hired, team spokesman Brian VanDercook said. Labbe, Irwin's crew chief when he ran four Winston Cup races last season, also is the front-tire changer on Dale Jarrett's No. 88 car.According to VanDercook, on race day Robert Yates will share crew chief responsibilities on the 28 car with Raymond Fox, a veteran crew member.

Sometime before Sunday's ARCA 200, Kenny Irwin Jr. hopes to get an intensive lesson on how to draft with other cars at the Daytona International Speedway. Since Irwin claims not to know the first thing about drafting, that might be a good idea.``Joe Ruttman told me he would sit down with me, get a couple of those Hot Wheels cars and show me exactly how to do it,'' said Irwin, a Winston Cup rookie this year who raced with Ruttman in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series last season. ``I really have no idea about drafting, so I'm hoping to get some tips before this weekend.

For a whole assortment of people and reasons, Ernie Irvan has stamped himself as the sentimental favorite to win Saturday's Brickyard 400.Irvan made a major move in that direction Thursday when he qualified on the pole for the fourth edition of the richest race on the NASCAR Winston Cup schedule. Irvan toured the 2.5-mile Indianapolis Motor Speedway in a record 50.637 seconds and 177.736 mph to earn his first pole position of the 1997 season.He did so carrying a full load of emotional baggage.

Davey Allison sat 12 rungs above the earth on top of his team's trailer.The height put him close to the cloud he's been riding.''We came off last year on a big high,'' said Allison, who is a favorite in today's pole qualifying for the Daytona 500's No. 1 and No. 2 positions. ''It was the best season I'd ever had as a driver.''The pressure is there, but being the favorite is a nice position to be in. Hopefully, we can have as good a season as we did last year, this time for 29 races instead of 25.''Allison, in his fifth season, placed third in the Winston Cup points and won five races last year.

Robert Yates Racing, a team beset by misfortune, has hired Kenny Wallace to take the place of injured veteran Ernie Irvan at the NASCAR Winston Cup race Saturday in Bristol, Tenn.''Kenny Wallace represents just the combination we need,'' Yates said. ''He's experienced and level-headed.''Wallace, who has made 38 career Winston Cup starts, will be the fifth driver to get behind the wheel of the No. 28 car in the past year.Davey Allison was Yates' driver for the team's first 132 races beginning in 1989.

Considering the voracity with which critics have gleefully chronicled Dale Earnhardt's sagging fortunes in 1997, one would think he never has experienced such depths in his NASCAR career.Truth is, Earnhardt has visited these realms before.Entering today's Pepsi 400 at Daytona International Speedway, Earnhardt may be saddled with a 42-race losing streak, but he carries with him the knowledge that he has survived similar dry spells in the past.Not only survived, but emerged a champion once again.

The Boston Red Sox signed pitcher Johnny Ruffin to a minor-league contract Friday and invited him to spring training. Ruffin was 1-3 with a 5.49 ERA in 49 games for Cincinnati last season, all as a reliever. Terms of the deal were not released. Meanwhile, the Red Sox continued their pursuit of left-handed free agent Steve Avery. The team reportedly was near a 1-year deal with Avery for $4.2 million before negotiations broke down over his request for a longer contract with a clause that would allow him to become a free agent after the first year.